The entire idea behind Iran’s proxy warfare is to have deniability so the regime can escape retribution and still position itself as the power broker that all must cater to. If the Iranians needed any reassurance that their strategy is working, they got it from Vice President Joe Biden on August 23.

In an address in Indiana to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Biden made the remarkably ignorant and damaging statement:

Iranian influence in Iraq is minimal. It’s been greatly exaggerated.

To prove his point, Biden said that Iran had spent over $100 million to influence the last Iraqi election, and “they utterly failed.” Biden is right that the election was a major defeat for Iran, and the regime has lost the war for the hearts and minds of the Iraqis, but Iran’s campaign is much more than a popularity contest.

The pro-Iran religious Shiite parties may have been walloped in the election, but the two top vote-getters — the blocs of Iyad Allawi and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — are still forced to jockey for their support in forming the next government. In effect, because of Allawi and al-Maliki’s failure to reach a compromise, the parties tied to Iran get the deciding vote. Al-Maliki is actively courting the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, and Allawi has gone to Damascus to meet with Bashar Assad and Moqtada al-Sadr, the Iranian-backed militia leader who led a revolt against coalition forces and the Iraqi government. Sadr is being educated in Iran so he can be declared an ayatollah.

The number one problem facing Iraq is still security, and it is here that Iran continues to exercise its might in the hopes of being granted veto power over the fate of its neighbor. Iranian involvement is so steep that American generals have consistently spoken out about the problem, probably as a way of giving their political leaders a discreet nudge to do something about it. General Ray Odierno complained in July that Iran was using three extremist Shiite groups to carry out attacks on U.S. bases: Ketaib Hezbollah, the League of the Righteous, and the Promise Day Brigade, which split off from Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. These forces also actively fight the Iraqi government. Iranian munitions continue to be seized around the country, and Abu Dura — a slayer of thousands of Sunnis with brutality that has given him near horror-movie villain status — has returned to Iraq from his safe harbor in Iran.

The Iranian regime barely hides its fingerprints on these radical Shiite elements, sending the Iraqis and their Western allies the message that Iran is the one whose wishes must be granted. The regime is more careful to conceal its ties to al-Qaeda. General Petraeus said in March that al-Qaeda “continues to use Iran as a key facilitation hub, where facilitators connect al-Qaeda’s senior leadership to regional affiliates.” In other words, al-Qaeda is connected to its affiliates in places like Iraq via Iran. The Iraqi intelligence service has reached the same conclusion, reporting that Iran is sending its terrorist allies to Iraq through other countries like Syria to cloak their responsibility.

34 Comments, 32 Threads

1.
Terry, Eilat - Israel

Biden is just a symptom of what has happened to the political elites in America & other Western countries. Appeasement of Islam is not working, indeed, it’s a spectacular failure. But, the spineless creeps who run the West, politicians, media, & academia, just can’t face reality, they can’t admit the failure of their ideas.
So, they lie to cover it up.

They are the kind of people that are so stupid and unthinking that if you said to them “Hey Joe could you sniff my butt and see if I just farted!”they would proceed to do just that…what a bunch of idiots they are…wouldn’t want to offend anyone no matter how ridiculous or dangerous the request!

We’ve only ourselves to blame. Who but ourselves voted for these jerks?. We’ve allowed the “majority” of ourselves to be snookered en masse by slick-tongues and Janus-faced opportunists of no depth and experience of the largest issues. Metropolitan (i.e. not cosmopolitan) City-Ward politics is a shallow school for world responsibilities.

Democracy is a messy process, fortunately we’ve the opportunity coming this November to turn the national inertia in another “right”-ward direction. Since we’ve wrinkled our noses over the pungent scent of socialism; let’s have the cojones to examine Europe’s surrender to Islamic/Muslim stealth with a cold eye. We’ve only to look around the world for examples of what not to do. But it ain’t going to be a quick turnaround.

My hope is that our America can be liberated from its tweeting-texting-truncated-language-brain-shortened attention spans to be able to accomplish this needed turnaround. I wish us luck, literally.

If Biden were a Republican, the (rotting) MSM would be all over him. But, alas, he’s a Dummycrat and the MSM just keeps mum. One has to question, however, the electorate of Deleware for continuing to elect him to the Senate.

During this period of decline in the American Empire, the most electable politicians have to be the best entertainers, promisers, and liars. There is too much corruption unaddressed in the political system that seems to better quick fix with paint. (POR) Biden is not nearly the stone faced, deeply sincere liar that the O is, so he makes up for it with the flashy teeth and little gaffs. Clinton was still the best at telling the crowd stunning whooper, with a margin of humor thrown in. Bush winced and choked too much.
In God We Trust, not the self-centered power brokers. Hopefully, Dante was right and those -crats will spend eternity in a cess pool reserved for liars, panderers, and seducers.

Joe Biden was the “grown-up” on the ticket. Put there to make the slackers, lefties and indie-scum-dents feel safer voting for their “dream-date”. The one they all knew way too fickle and vain and just to PERFECT to ever be THEIR steady at the Prom they so desperately wanted to just BE at.

Biden, to them, was the political equivilent of a limo ride home for when “The One” dumps them at the punch bowl. White guy, silver hair, blue suit safe… he’ll get them home before curfew, but he’s just cool enough to let them drink beer along the way.

He is a walking, talking, living stereotype of everything that people SHOULD HATE about politicians. He combines the cheesy, creepy shallowness of an Edwards, and the False Patina of Kennedyesque maturity.

He is a complete moron, an intellectual midget who been utterly and demonstratably WRONG on most topics which he has ever spoken on or about.

But for his “standard” looks, and his “get out of jail free” card issued by the MSM due to his perpetually Left Leaning stances, he is entirely un-electable outside his small crony machine politik state.

How such people can ascend to the national political scene without imploding is beyond me.

Vice President Joe Biden is in the wrong profession; he should be a stand-up comedian instead of a corrupt, Democrat senator for 30-something years. Heck, he could even cite someone else’s joke as his own & have the people believe he wrote it himself. Many professional comedians don’t even write their own jokes. However, instead of choosing the correct path as the comedian, Biden is the fool anyway. Except the people are laughing at him instead of with him. Idiot.

My name is Larry. I met Joe Biden once- actually twice in the same day. Once he spoke to my graduate seminar of six students for 90 minutes non-stop. He even took some questions. He let us know enthusiastically that the US should recognize Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel.

Several hours later, he spoke to a large student assembly and reversed his position on Jerusalem. I take Joe’s words on Iraq on faith, as I am sure most do.

BTW, I like the sound of ‘Promise Day.’ As a Jewish guy and an Israel citizen, can I take part in Promise Day, or would it be more like ‘Guillotine Day’? Wondering…

Has it begun at all yet to sink into you guys how really, really awful Bush and his crew were? And that if you had voted for Bush in 2004, you really should admit to not having anything resembling a clue when it comes to politics, including who’s a liar and who isn’t.

‘Has it begun at all yet to sink into you guys how really, really awful Bush and his crew were?’

Nope. Doubt you’d find too many here who didn’t feel Bush could have done more, but they also realize that being a wartime president means compromises.

The ‘Bush lied us into war with Iraq’ jackassery played well in the fever swamps, but the marching morons never really mattered. It never gained any traction with thinking people. They can and do read and understand plain English. Just as importantly, they are not such shallow thinkers that they cannot understand context. So, Bush was reelected.

You, well, you seem incapable of critical thinking, and so are led by the nose. Think you’d learn.

Those Americans with “long term memory” may remember that during Biden’s campaign for presidency …he was well received by IRI lobbyists in LA and a handsome amount was donated to his campaign. Likewise with Hillary Clinton. Biden’s relationship with IRI goes a long way…so there is no surprise here for him to minimize Iran’s influence in Iraq….just wait…this administration is going to hand Iraq over to mullahs on a silver platter …if Maleki can move recent deadlock his way! When it comes to Middle Eastern and foreign policy Americans are just about clueless as they can be. Just look at US foreign policy fiasco over the past 32 plus years. It was the Saudi interference that somewhat prevented Maleki from winning the elections.

Just think Joe Biden is just a heart beat away from being our president. All this shows is how unintelligent our present president was and is. The really sad thing is this is no joke, our country is at stake!!

kind of reminds me of the gerald ford comment during debate with jimmah carter. who, thanks to BO is now the SECOND worst president of the US. Poland is not under the control of the soviet union. many americans, and most poles disagreed with that idiotic statement. of course jerry ford was a rino idiot!

And if Obama is somehow relieved of his duties as POTUS we’ll have a President Biden and if some disaster should befall them both, President Pelosi. What a sterling command structure, a foundation built on solid rock sitting in a bed of quicksand.

Maybe Pelosi will be removed from that line of succession in November, 2010 but that leaves two more years of Obama/Biden. No wonder these dupes continue to receive such ardent support from their cheerleaders in the media who likely have fingers and toes crossed that this pair doesn’t do to their fellow travelers what they predicted would be the long sought fate of the Right, the demise of the Republican Party after their messiah was elected; that is if the Republicans don’t screw things up by attempting to reach across the aisle and curry favor with a press whose sole purpose is fiercely dedicated to burying them in a sewer of derogatory lies and smears.